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September, 2020

SmartSapp Class vs Google Classroom - 2020

SmartSapp Class vs Google Classroom - 2020

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Schools have been closed, teaching and learning has been disrupted and parents are worried about their children's educational progress. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused schools to adopt and experiment with various e-learning solutions in order to mitigate the break in teaching and learning.

The need for schools to adopt an e-learning platform has become more imperative than ever. There are so many e-learning solutions available and making a choice can become a difficult endeavor for Ghanaian schools.

This blog is to make it easy for schools to select the right e-learning platform. How? By comparing two of the best e-learning platforms on the market. SmartSapp Class and Google Classroom.

SmartSapp

SmartSapp is a child security and school management system that provides an e-learning platform called SmartSapp Class. SmartSapp Class helps students and teachers organize assignments, boost collaboration, and foster better communication.

Parents play an important role in a child's education, hence, SmartSapp allows parents to take part in the learning process of the child. They can view the progress of their children, the scores of their children and the various feedback given by teachers. SmartSapp also gives parents direct communication access to their child's teacher via a mobile application.

Google Classroom

Google classroom is a web service aimed at simplifying how teachers create, distribute and grade assignments. Google Classroom integrates various Google products (docs, sheets, slides, calendar, forms) into a platform to help teachers communicate with students and manage assignments.

Teachers can invite their students to join a class on Google Classroom by sending them a private code. Teachers can create, disseminate and grade assignments using the various integrated Google products.

SmartSapp and Google Classroom are two great solutions and they both provide features that enable remote learning. To make the right choice, you will need to assess their various functionalities and make sure the one you choose provides all the necessary features you will need to run a successful online school.

SmartSapp vs Google Classroom: Who wins!

In this face off, we will compare SmartSapp and Google Classroom based on the various features required to make your school ready for online learning.

- ROUND 1: Features for students

| Feature | SmartSapp | Google Classroom | | :------------- | :----------: | :-----------: | | Detailed Academic Report Cards | check |https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1BTAMG_1OORqno6CizA66sZm3fnXuDeAo | | Mobile & Web accessibility | check | check | | Easy access to online live lessons | check| https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1BTAMG_1OORqno6CizA66sZm3fnXuDeAo | | Access to full library with textbooks | check | https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1BTAMG_1OORqno6CizA66sZm3fnXuDeAo | | Parent account | check | https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1BTAMG_1OORqno6CizA66sZm3fnXuDeAo | | Track classwork and submit assignments | check | check | | Integrated Zoom Video Conferencing | check | https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1BTAMG_1OORqno6CizA66sZm3fnXuDeAo | | Consistent reminders on all activities | check | https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1BTAMG_1OORqno6CizA66sZm3fnXuDeAo | | Scores | 8 | 2 |

- ROUND 2: Features for parents

| Feature | SmartSapp | Google Classroom | | :------------- | :----------: | :-----------: | | Visibility into student activity | check |check | | Detailed academic report | check |https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1BTAMG_1OORqno6CizA66sZm3fnXuDeAo | | Activity reminders | check |https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1BTAMG_1OORqno6CizA66sZm3fnXuDeAo | | User friendly parent mobile app | check |https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1BTAMG_1OORqno6CizA66sZm3fnXuDeAo | | Scores | 4 |1 |

- ROUND 3: Features for teachers & school management

| Feature | SmartSapp | Google Classroom | | :------------- | :----------: | :-----------: | | Academic calendar | check |check | | Classroom management | check |check | | Pay school fees before access is granted | check |https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1BTAMG_1OORqno6CizA66sZm3fnXuDeAo | | Lesson scheduler - Online & In school | check |https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1BTAMG_1OORqno6CizA66sZm3fnXuDeAo | | Timetable for student & parents | check |https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1BTAMG_1OORqno6CizA66sZm3fnXuDeAo | | Auto-grading | check |check | | Detailed academic report cards | check |https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1BTAMG_1OORqno6CizA66sZm3fnXuDeAo | | Flexible with any email service | check |https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1BTAMG_1OORqno6CizA66sZm3fnXuDeAo | | Scores | 8 |3 |

ROUND 4: Ease of use and experience

This is a very subjective area and it all comes down to what works for you personally but there are certainly some user experience features that we can compare.

Student portal

| SmartSapp | Google classroom | | :-------------: | :----------: | | check | check | In both applications, you can readily see all subjects and the number of assignments in the student portal. SmartSapp goes a step further to show the number of new learning materials for each subject.

Parent dashboard

| SmartSapp | Google classroom | | :-------------: | :----------: | | check | https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1BTAMG_1OORqno6CizA66sZm3fnXuDeAo |

Google Classroom does not provide a dashboard for parents to track child's progress and view reports, rather, parents are sent an email containing reports and reminders which they can easily miss.

Parent - teacher communication

| SmartSapp | Google classroom | | :-------------: | :----------: | | check | https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1BTAMG_1OORqno6CizA66sZm3fnXuDeAo | Google Classroom does not provide a channel for teachers to communicate with parents and guardians directly. This feature helps teachers to easily send information to the parent of a particular student and improves the overall user experience.

eLibrary

| SmartSapp | Google classroom | | :-------------: | :----------: | | check | https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1BTAMG_1OORqno6CizA66sZm3fnXuDeAo | Both applications allow teachers to upload learning materials, but SmartSapp goes a step further. SmartSapp allows schools or teachers to setup an e-library containing text-books and other ebooks.

| | SmartSapp | Google Classroom | | :-------------: | :----------: | :-----------: | | Scores | 4 |1 |

The verdict

Google Classroom has some good e-learning features but it requires a Gmail account. This can be a bottleneck for schools already using another email client like Zoho mail, this is not an issue on SmartSapp.

Apart from SmartSapp being feature packed, it provides amazing features in 3 key areas which Google Classroom does not. This makes SmartSapp the top choice.

Auto Grading

Auto grading is an important feature in every e-learning platform, it gives teachers the ability to automatically grade assignments and quizzes. This in-turn helps teachers save time and focus creating good resources for students.

Detailed academic report

This feature enables teachers to generate academic reports for students. Parents can easily access these academic reports in their dashboards and get an overview of their children's progress based on previous reports.

Parental Inclusion

Research has shown that parental involvement in child education has a positive impact on children’s academic achievement (Laura & Mahia). SmartSapp includes the parent in the teaching and learning process by giving parents access to a mobile application.

Parents can easily view the progress of their child, they can easily make sure children are doing assignments and learning the various resources provided by the teacher. This enables parents to see their money’s worth and encourages them to pay their children’s fees.

| | SmartSapp | Google Classroom | | :-------------: | :----------: | :-----------: | | Total Scores | 24 |7 |

SmartSapp wins!

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If you are looking for a service to help you manage your school’s online learning while giving teachers, students and parents a great experience, then SmartSapp is the perfect choice for you.

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1GRqho_Xb3HdxbZSBUYb3qECxPRV8jp6-

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